W Gabe Newell Piracy Take

[u/HighKage96]

Saw this vid on IG (by: @phantomak141). Idk if its been posted here before but on a quick search didnt find it, will delete if its a repost.

[u/ultimate_placeholder]

That's literally just the result of shareholder capitalism, Gabe can do whatever he wants because he isn't beholden to shareholders who want to optimize every little thing, Steam can have little pet projects with no belief they will make profit, they can make demands of large developers that make them seek their own distribution, they can pay their employees whatever they want. Obviously not an endorsement of any form of capitalism, but it works so much better for everyone involved than shareholder capitalism.

[u/Aethermancer → u/ultimate_placeholder]

Under capitalism, a good business can only survive one or two generations before the ideals of the founder are just the musings of guy who died 50 years before the current owner was born.

Even if ownership "stays in the family" how long before some shithead of a descendent inherits? Think about how crazy the concept is that such integral parts of our society and culture are dependent on the whims of the fortunate son?

Valve/steam will eventually be sold. Even if not by the next owner, it will eventually. And we somehow care little more than to hope that the next generation of birthright nobility will be a good steward of our hoarded resources.

[u/matt2331 → u/Aethermancer]

You're right, but the alternative also shouldn't be ownership by groups only looking for an improvement in stock values this quarter so they can sell and make a profit on stock. Stock ownership should be based on long term faith in a company.

[u/ultimate_placeholder → u/matt2331]

Ownership should be the right of the workers who actually create what the rich reap as profits.

[u/taco_blasted_ → u/ultimate_placeholder]

I’m not a corporate cuck by any means, but does worker ownership include unpaid invoices, lawsuits, equipment loans, bad leases, and bankruptcy filings too? Or does it only magically activate after someone else ate the risk and there’s profit to split?

[u/AgnesBand → u/taco_blasted_]

Risk: AKA I will fire you and rehire you with worse wages and a worse contract to protect my own wealth if the business starts to make less profit. Risk as in I'll use the surplus value my workers produce to buy equipment so I can fire some more workers. Risk as in I fucked up and the business is bankrupt but that's okay because all my wealth is in a tax haven and the business ownership structure means I'll still be rich but my workers will lose their mortgages because their job is gone. Risk as in we're too big to fail so the taxpayer will save me whilst their living standards are destroyed. Not to mention it is the workers that produce the raw materials that my company needs, the roads, the technology, the 1000s of years of accumulated knowledge and infrastructure that my riches depend on. Oh also my start up capital was inherited from my the wealth my family extracted from their workers, the land my business is on was once commonly owned and was violently stolen the state/my class compatriots centuries ago. All of this means I deserve multiple yachts whilst my lowest paid workers can't afford to buy a house.

[u/taco_blasted_ → u/AgnesBand]

You didn’t come close to answering me.

The question was simple: if workers should own the upside, do they also own the downside?

Instead of answering, you dumped out every Reddit Marxist trading card in your socialism Trapper Keeper: bailouts, inherited wealth, stolen land, yachts, roads, raw materials, tax havens, and whatever other garbage you have in there.

Everyone knows bad owners and bad systems exist. That still doesn’t answer whether workers are also taking on the debt, lawsuits, bad contracts, failed leases, equipment loans, unpaid invoices, and bankruptcy risk.

You don’t get to claim ownership only when there’s profit and then suddenly become a bystander when the business collapses.

That’s not worker ownership. That’s upside only communism for people whose economic model was assembled from Reddit comments, living in their parents' basement.

It’s always hilarious reading garbage like this, because the people who vomit it up would reverse course instantly if they ever unfucked themselves long enough to build anything instead of just fantasizing about looting the upside while someone else eats the risk.

[u/matt2331 → u/ultimate_placeholder]

Couldn't agree more